NOEL BLAKE FACT­FILE

by As­ton Villa in 1979. With first-team op­por­tu­ni­ties limited at the Di­vi­sion and One

Euro­pean Cup win­ners, Blake had a spell on loan at Shrews­bury be­fore join­ing Birm­ing­ham in 1982. 1984-1988 Blake moved to Portsmouth in 1984 and played his full part as Pom­pey sought pro­mo­tion to the top flight un­der Alan Ball. Af­ter two near misses, it was third time lucky in 1986-87. How­ever, Pom­pey suf­fered im­me­di­ate rel-e

gation amid fi­nan­cial prob­lems and Blake de­parted for Leeds hav­ing made more than 150 ap­pear­ances. 1988-1995 Blake was one of Billy Bremner’s last sign­ings and spent two years

at Leeds be­fore link­ing up again with Ball at Stoke for a cou­ple of years. Af­ter a loan spell at Brad­ford City, he joined the club per­ma­nently in

1992. He then had a stint across the bor­der with Dundee be­tween 1993 and

1995. 1995-2001 The de­fender joined Ex­eter City and in Jan­uary 2000 took on the r ole

of player-manager, con­tin­u­ing in the post un­til Septem­ber 2001. He made

more than 150 ap­pear­ances for the Gre­cians. 2007-present Blake joined the FA on the coach­ing side in 2007. He man­aged the

U19s from 2009 to 2014, lead­ing them to the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onship semi-

fi­nals in 2010 and 2012. He be­came first-team coach at Black­pool last sum­mer un­der Jose Riga and was put in tem­po­rary charge when Riga was sacked in late Oc­to­ber. How­ever, he left Black­pool in De­cem­ber.